So this is what it has come to. After 60-plus days on the job at Ohio State, there’s no avoiding it.

Either the Big Ten bows to Urban Meyer, or Urban Meyer bows to the Big Ten.

“I can tell you this,” says Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema. “We at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC—in any way, shape or form.”

Just so we’re clear: Bielema wasn’t talking about winning national championships. He was talking about Meyer’s recruiting tactics—and how after a little more than two months on the job, Meyer already is getting under the skin of his colleagues.

Just how much, you ask? Bielema, whose teams have won more games than any other Big Ten team in his six seasons in Madison, says Badgers athletic director Barry Alvarez will speak Friday with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany about Meyer’s recruiting methods during the league’s athletic director meetings in Chicago.

During his National Signing Day press conference, Bielema hinted that Meyer was using “illegal” recruiting practices. He said as much again Thursday when contacted by Sporting News, and without getting into specifics offered this:

“I called Urban and we spoke about it,” Bielema said. “We talked about it, and he said it would stop and it did. I’ll let our commissioner deal with anything else. That’s not who we are (in the Big Ten). We settle things among ourselves as coaches.”

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One issue Bielema would talk about—and it’s perfectly legal under current NCAA rules—is Meyer’s recruitment of players who already had given verbal commitments to other Big Ten schools. It has been a longstanding “gentlemen’s agreement” in the league that coaches wouldn’t recruit players who had publicly given commitments to schools.

And here is where the two roads meet—where the Big Ten’s long history of playing nice could succumb to the SEC’s 21st Century pressure of winning it all. Someone, somewhere once said the most sincere form of flattery is copying the SEC.

Or something like that.

There’s a reason the SEC had 10 of its 14 teams in the Sporting News Top 25 recruiting rankings, and how that directly correlates to the SEC being the clear No.1 in on-field performance. Look, Vanderbilt—for love of God, Vanderbilt—had a better recruiting class than 10 of the Big Ten’s 12 schools.

Only Ohio State and Michigan had better classes. And now we know why Ohio State did: a little Deep South flavor to Midwest recruiting.

FROM SI

Meyer got four-star DE Se’Von Pittman to switch from Michigan State, and four-star OL Kyle Dodson to switch from Wisconsin. Four others—including the best player in Ohio State’s class (DE Noah Spence)—switched from Penn State. In fact, eight of the 10 players Meyer landed since accepting the job were already committed to other schools.

So what does Urb have to say for himself? He called the criticism “nonsense” on his Wednesday night radio show, and pointed out that his philosophy is simple: call and ask. That’s where he comes into direct contrast with the “gentlemen’s agreement”—and where the Big Ten differs from the SEC.

The SEC has no such agreement, and Meyer’s ability to flip recruits forced an already chippy group of SEC coaches to fall in line or fall behind—and in the process turned recruiting in the SEC from a heavyweight fight to a bloodbath.

“If they’re interested, absolutely (you recruit them)—especially from your home state,” Meyer said. “Is it gratifying to take a guy from another school? Not at all.”

The reality is Meyer is paid to win games; paid to elevate the Ohio State program beyond the point where Jim Tressel got it with the help of a back judge. He doesn’t have time to worry about gentlemen’s agreements or offending other coaches.

A year after Meyer arrived at Florida, the SEC’s string of six straight national championships began. The Gators manhandled heavily-favored Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game in 2006, and the talent discrepancy was as stunning as it was significant.

It’s only greater now.

So the question then becomes: What’s more important—an agreement or a championship? Either the Big Ten bows to Urban, or Urban bows to the Big Ten.

“There’s a common thread in this league,” Bielema said. “Every time we walk into a coaches meeting in the offseason, there’s a mutual sign of respect.”

That and a nine-year streak of watching someone else hold up the Waterford crystal trophy at the end of the season.